Binny enjoying role of finisher

Stuart Binny is enjoying his role as finisher with Rajasthan Royals, he said, after propelling them to victory in a high-scoring game against Pune Warriors on Sunday night. Binny hit 32 not out of 13 balls to help Royals get to their target of 179 with a ball and five wickets to spare, and thus keep their 100% record in Jaipur this year intact.

"At the moment I am totally enjoying it [finishing games]. I started off at No. 4 in the tournament and now I have come down to No. 6," he told the IPL site after the match. "At Nos. 5, 6 you get an opportunity to finish the game. I have been batting really well. I have been watching the ball and when the ball is in my area I score boundaries quickly."

This was the fifth time Binny finished not out in 11 innings, and he said he was confident of chasing down the target given the nature of the pitch. "There is always pressure chasing but the wicket turned out to be an excellent batting strip so we knew that even if we were chasing 50 runs in 25 balls it was always possible. We thought the ball would swing a bit more but it really didn't do much as it was a pretty flat batting track. When we spoke in the mid-innings break we spoke about just going through and batting all the overs and with a wicket like this we could definitely get runs on the board."

Royals needed 43 off the final four when Binny took apart Rahul Sharma in the 17th over, and it had come down to 28 needed off 16 when Sanju Samson came to bat. At that point, Binny said, Samson delivered just what was needed: "We knew that we didn't want to keep too much for the last over, so we tried to push in the 18th over and it came off well. Sanju came and played well to get a boundary off the first ball, and it took a bit of pressure off me as well."

Samson was out off the second ball of the final over, leaving James Faulkner on strike with four needed off four. "At that time we were just looking to get bat on ball and find the gap. The point fielder is on the line so you can really run one run there. So the communication between Faulkner and me was just to get bat on ball," Binny said. "And fortunately we got two runs off that ball, which took some pressure off me again as well.